The Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, fixed June 28 for hearing the case seeking to sack Speaker Amaewhule-led House of Assembly, following the lawmakers’ alleged defections to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The Presiding Judge, Justice Steven Dalyop Pam, heard the suit instituted by the BOOT Party against Amaewhule and 24 others, despite a petition to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho, by Amaewhule seeking the transfer of the matter to another court.
The party and other plaintiffs in suit number FHC/PHC/269/2024 are praying the court to declare the seats of Amaewhule and 24 others vacant for defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC.
The suit has been dragging since December as parties are locked in legal fireworks, with the PDP and the APC seeking to be joined in it.
But the court was confronted on Monday with a petition by Amaewhule and addressed to Justice John Tsoho, seeking the reassignment of the case to another court.
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Justice Pam, who read the petition in the open court, noted that the petitioner, Amaewhule, prayed the CJ of the High Court, to stop the hearing process and transfer the case to another court.
Pam noted that the petitioner claimed in the petition that the court refused to allow other interested parties to join the suit.
But the lawyer to the BOOT Party, Mr. Reuben Wanogho, told the court that the petition was aimed at arresting the ongoing case and urged the court to discountenance it.
Wanogho averred that the petition that was not served on the parties was impudent, adding: “I urge your Lordship to totally discountenance the petition as it is targeted at arresting the proceeding.
“If your Lordship bows to this letter, then you have allowed the litigants to determine pending applications before the court even before they are heard.
“It is not part of our jurisprudence that the determination of motions for joinder will form the bases for the transfer of cases. The application is a slap to the temple of justice and all of us who are workers in that temple.”
PDP National Legal Adviser Adeyemi Ajibade(SAN) insisted that there was no intention by the court to shut out anyone from joining in the suit, adding that the petition was ill-intended.
However, the lawyer to the 1st to 25th defendants in the suit, Ferdinand Orbi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, denied knowledge of the petition by his client.
He prayed the court to adhere to the petition and stop further proceeding if the letter was addressed to the CJ of the court.
Orbi said: “I know nothing about the petition, even though it was written by the 15th defendant. Be that as it may my lord, if the letter is addressed to your Lordship, then there may be grounds to consider the submissions.